Dodgy dealings
Our plan for the season was to head straight to Venice from Montenegro then work our way down the Dalmatian coast before sliding into the Ionian Sea through the Corinth Canal to finish the season somewhere in the Aegean Sea. Sandy was reluctant to return to Croatia given our experiences in the previous season, but with a little convincing the plan was approved.
We had significant upgrades and repairs completed over the winter so a short workup cruise around Boka Bay in Montenegro kicked our season off. So early on April 29th we set sail for Venezia some 2 to 2.5 days sail. Dealing with officialdom in these countries is always fraught especially dealing with multiple agencies. A lot of friends and others anecdotally have come unstuck and copped fines of various sizes and additional time inconveniences. We dodged these Montenegrin bullets having also managed the same in Croatia and Italy, so we felt pretty smug leaving the Montenegrin waters fineless.
From Herzceg Novi to the Ionian
The forecast for the trip north is described in Tivat to Tivat via Venezia so head over there for that story.
In the previous October, on a trusted recommendation, I got a design done for a new lithium battery setup from a fella named Lloyd from a Trinidadian company, Temprite, based in Trinidad (yeah I know, I should have stopped there). The design was a little out there but seemed achievable and was promising good numbers. LLoyd went further and offered to supply the equipment and even to fly over to install the lot. Lloyd is a very positive person who despite my warnings of potential Montenegro customs and shipping issues assured me of success. Me too gullible accepted these assurances.
All went quiet with Lloyd and by January I was very doubtful of any success and sat at the end of much ridicule for my trust. Eventually given outside nudging, LLoyd contacted me with I believe a truly sorry tale of home invasion and bashing which only got worse with him hospitalised for Covid.
A couple of months on, recovered but still impacted, Lloyd assured me of the shipment after considerable chasing up. Eventually after me contacting his shipper directly I stupidly thought I struck gold, however he discovered what I had said all along, it can’t be done and so he too went into silent mode. I asked LLoyd for my money back and months later, plenty of ducking, weaving, weeping and gnashing of teeth etc he agreed to refund me. (edit: It took a further 14 months (march 2024) to get my money back minus $2000 USD because his shipper lost one of the batteries). Needless to say avoid Temprite in the US and Carribean imho.
Yes, “finished” spaghetti!
Having gone to the trouble of getting solar panels installed on a bespoke frame, we decided to pick up the ancilliary inverter equipment to make use of the panels as designed. The bare infrastructure was there but needed some organs and arteries. So taking advantage of “Goods in Transit” available to boats travelling through Montenegro, we purchased the equipment again saving the 24% tax on goods we would have had to pay anywhere else in Europe. The supplier based in Herzeg Novi, offered to install the equipment in a few days which despite the 200 euros a day in the Porto Novi marina, seemed a good idea at the time. Promises in the marine repair / installation world are more often than not, unfulfilled and they too were long on promise, very poor in implementation, dodgy and expensive on delivery. Their insistence on adding unwanted extra equipment which was incorrectly installed nearly caused the boat to burn down on the day before departure. Fortunately Sandy’s acute sense of smell detected the burning smell early and we avoided catastrophe!
Not a product defect!!! Incorrectly insatlled and positioned abutting and scorching the hull and Lynx BMS . We were close to a tragic fire, the end of Cooinda and definitely at the beginning of more than 2 ½ frustrating and expensive years fixing the f’ups.
Edit: Expensive problems persisted for months afterwards made all the more difficult as the installer rewired boat manufacturer systems but provided no diagram or explanation and plans not followed. The rats nest technique of wiring and lingering issues made things all the more difficult and expensive to trace and rectify.
We did enjoy a visit to Herzeg Novi old town which like everwhere enjoys a colourful history and tales of savagery including from the Ottoman fleet commander Barbarossa. Sadly it was only towards the end of our time in Montenegro, in Herzeg Novi, did we find a coffee shop to rival Melbourne’s best.
We got to spend time with the always entertaining Nina G and engaging Edward D for a most enjoyable and tasty meal and get together. They are people we miss.
With the burning crisis averted and system amended it was an early 4am customs clearance seeing us heading south. Too good to hope all was repaired and working well though. No more than an hour into the journey warning lights and a horn alerted us to a drive belt failure which was another of the bodgy installer’s fails. Unfortunately the replacement also failed leaving us with just the one engine for the trip south. The forecast was benign with good albeit slightly lumpy sailing weather all the way. Hopes for likely competent engineers in Greece held great allure for us, so onward south down the Albanian coast to Corfu it was.
Leaving Montenegro was bitter sweet. We looked forward to heading to Greece for effectively the next 2 years but sad to part ways with a place we had grown to love.
